This was my first year at Typographics 2018. Typographics 2018 is a conference for typography enthusiasts around the world, that’s held at Cooper Union. There were panelists from San Francisco, Berlin, Buenos Aires, and Japan; it really felt like a truly international experience.

I had the chance to sit in on both the conference and TypeLab parts of Typographics. Here are a few highlights from the panels/breakout sessions that I really enjoyed:

1. Emojis = Pictures + Character (Jennifer Daniel, Google Emoji)
Emojis are images that may translate into different meanings across different devices. Jennifer gave an example about how the “dumpling” emoji looks different across different chat platforms -every culture has a dumpling!
I found an interesting tension in this statement -emojis should have a consistent user experience (across platforms), yet still be personalized to their users.

2. Ubiquitous type is can cause user confusion (Mr. Keedy)
Mr. Keedy created Keedy Sans, a popular font in the 90′s. The font was considered “uncool” 10 years later and used everywhere. Keedy sans is used on teenage girl makeup packaging, as well as winebars. This could create a bad user experience for people because of lack of branding. Last year, Mr. Keedy refreshed his font -to create greater customization and allow Keedy fans to layer the font for interesting visual effects.

3. Braille is a form of typography (Ellen Lupton, Cooper Hewitt)
Ellen talked about how blind individuals read Braille in a unique way -holding it across their body. She also demonstrated a blind person’s experience watching music videos by showing the accessibility voiceover.

4. Brand holds content together with design (Gale Bichler, NYTimes)
Gale foused on how the New York Times(NYT) has branded itself as a publication that experiments with many types of fonts. NYT can play around with different types and massive fonts as illustration. If someone picks up a page from the floor, they can usually tell that it’s from the New York Times because of branding.

5. Picking fonts is like eating ice cream. (Veronika Burian and Jose Scaglione, Type Together)
When combining fonts, look at mechanic and organic feels. Veronika and Jose talked about how people like humanist fonts, with a hint of a calligrapher’s hand. Ideally, you should find a balance typefaces share a common language.

The overarching theme is that typography is wide-ranging and crosses various mediums. Visual languages include symbols, braille, and audio caption. The challenge now lies in how to design the best experiences for these new forms of language.

After taking lessons for a few years and gaining experience as a performer you are confident and ready to start a belly dancing business. In fact, the desire to operate your own business is on your mind everyday.

Here are some guidelines to consider before opening a location:

Do you have a golden goose for financial starting costs, miscellaneous expenses, and savings to overcome unexpected emergencies?
Do you have dedicated students who have agreed to enroll when the doors open?
Do you have knowledge or experience in operating a business?
Do you have business associates who can be of assistance?
Are you able to make a long-term commitment?
Are you able and willing to work long hours which means giving up a portion of your social activities?
Are you a person of many talents and creative abilities?
Are you adaptable and flexible? A popular, but true, statement which we hear with regularity is location, location, and location.
Location and Community:
A popular, but true statement heard with regularity. is location, location, location. The studio should be easy to find, safe, and within range of the targeted market.

Most of the students are women attending night classes and their safety is a business concern. The studio and its parking lot need to be well lighted and maintained with security.

The dance studio needs to be located in or near a varied community of nationalities. Many of these women enjoy dances with an international spirit. If your targeted community is small consider in-home or private instructions before investing in leasing or purchasing a studio.

Licenses, Insurance, Attorney, Company Name:

Acquiring licenses and permits is a necessity. Check with your local and state governments for business requirements.
Hire an attorney. This person aids in setting up various types of corporations, partnership, or sole proprietorship.
Insurance for protection of self, customers, property, and other liabilities.
Hire an accountant or CPA.
Music royalties may be required. Speaking from experience they will find you if you do not know how to locate them.
The company name will need to be filed with the state and there is no guarantee that the name will be accepted. The attorney will conduct a statewide search to be sure that it can be used. Be prepared with three different names.
Advertise, Market, and Sell:
In addition to being a good teacher there are three other major concerns where knowledge and experience will help you to succeed in business. These three are advertising, marketing, and selling. These three skills requiring knowledge, creativity, and financing will be a constant in all aspects of your business.

Advertising, marketing, and selling are the three mainstays of continuing to be in business and making a profit. Belly dancing is a lot of fun, but we do have to wear a business cap to continue our pleasure and make a living from it.